Tuesday, March 9, 2021 – Health Chief Administrative Secretary, Dr. Mercy Mwangangi, has opened up on her working relationship with CS Mutahi Kagwe during the Covid-19 pandemic.
Speaking during an interview, Mwangangi revealed how she put up with Kagwe’s midnight texts which kept her awake all night.
She admitted that her job had a lot of pressure, especially in this Covid-19 era.
“We hardly slept during this past year.”
“The Minister, Mutahi Kagwe, often joked that he was able to send texts at 2 am, 3 am, 4 am, 5 am and to his surprise, most times, we would reply to him almost immediately,” she disclosed.
She added that during the period when dealing with a disease, which little was known about, demanded working long hours, adding that it took a toll on the officials.
“Were there effects of no sleep? Of course yes, there are times we really struggled because of the exhaustion.
“You felt exhausted, but then the country was in a crisis, and we needed to brace ourselves and fight the pandemic,” she said.
The CAS added that the job pressure was high noting that a lot was going on in the background before the officials appeared on TV to give daily updates.
She noted that they held extensive consultations to better understand how to handle the pandemic with various officials reaching out to their international connections to gather more information on how the other countries were doing it.
“I came into the position fired up, ready to pour my energies into the Universal Healthcare programme and reproductive and maternal health services, but what ended up happening is that in the past one year, it does feel like I’ve been going through a Ph.D. in leadership, in crisis management, and in multi-sectoral collaborations.”
“And this has taught me that there is never space when you’ve learned enough,” she stated.
E! News Blog
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